With only a few days to go until the end of the year, there is a very close 3-way race for Trainer of the Year. As of December 20th at 9pm, Tim Marsh from the River Valley Club in Hanover New Hampshire is showing a total of 1476 completed one on one personal training sessions. Eric Olympico from Phoenix Fitness in Ancaster Ontario is a very close second at 1471 sessions, while last year's Trainer of the Year, Matt Stirling from Performance Fitness in Chatham Ontario is closing quickly with 1436 sessions and over 60 completed in the last 2 weeks.

Each year the Pro Fitness Consulting Group presents awards for Personal Trainer of the Year, Fitness Consultant of the Year, and Personal Training Club of the Year. Keep your eye open for the February edition of our personal training newsletter that gets posted up on this site. Also take the opportunity now to read why you should be using Google Chrome as your browser for PFP Track software.

I just returned from our meeting with our Senior Web Developer Adrian Duyzer to discuss upcoming new features to our version 2 software. With 3 of our clubs coming on board this month with the full club software package, we wanted to ensure that the transition was as smooth as possible. Our programming team completed the program for the transfer of information within the week and the process has started with Absolute Fitness, the Fitness Firm and Performance Health and Fitness.

In our conversations Adrian indicated that he was using Google Chrome as his preferred Browser to run the software. When he claimed that it was noticeably faster that Firefox I had to go home and give it a try. I was amazed at the difference and I immediately added the Google Chrome Browser to my two computers. I am recommending that all staff in our Pro Fitness clubs make this transition as soon as possible whether that's version 1 or 2. Please ensure that you are not using Explorer. In any business efficiency is a requirement and when you're dealing with scheduling, sales transactions, payroll and reporting you can never be too quick. Make the change today and then comment below.

It always surprises me when I visit clubs and their personal training rates have not increased in several years. The majority of our personal training centers that use our Pro Fitness Program increase their rates every year. For instance I just received an email from Kelvin Galbraith, the owner of the Fitness Firm in Burlington Ontario, to increase his personal training rates by $5 per session for all of his packages. We put in an order for his new customized rate sheets and sent an email off to our programming team to adjust his purchase rates in his software. Our program features 9 different one on one packages with multiple financing options that have been carefully designed to maximize sales performance.

I bet the number one reason why clubs are hesitant to raise fees is because they have not been successful selling personal training to begin with. The lack of sales has little or nothing to do with your competition's PT rates or whether or not you charge $40 or $60 per session. Trust me, we've been setting up personal training sales programs for all types of clubs since 1998 and get outstanding results each and every time. If you have a predictable sales system in place with well trained Fitness Consultants who can build value and overcome objections, price will be very insignificant in the bigger picture.

Raising your prices will accomplish several things. It will allow your Trainers a chance to earn more and prove to them that you value their services and appreciate their loyalty and continuing education. It will demonstrate to your members that you value personal training and believe that it is a tremendous investment or indeed the best investment your clients can make. In fact, most clients ask their Trainers when their fees are going to go up because they want to support them in getting a raise. We have had little to no resistance when one of our Senior Trainers moves up to a Master Trainer Level and approaches their clients to let them know their session rate will be increasing by $5 -$10 per session. You also have to take into the consideration the increased costs of doing business today. From processing fees, increased utility costs, equipment maintenance, employee benefits, addition HR costs, etc., club owners must ensure that they maintain at least a 30% profit margin on personal training sales at all times. We're happy to say that all of our clients are monitored and trained to consistently achieve those margins and more.

Click on the PDF below for all of the latest statistics from many of our Pro Fitness Program Clubs. Read about Phoenix Fitness in Ancaster Ontario taking the number 1 spot with close to $150,000 in PT sales with a 10,000 square foot facility. Also check out how close the race for Trainer of the Year is with only 1 month to go.

The Personal Training Marketing Tip of the month is a fantastic way to help boost referral sales and we look forward to you posting comments and sharing your success once you've put this into practice. We guarantee that it will generate you new clients.